Celebration and Sense of History at Chicago Party

Supporters in Grant Park in Chicago celebrated as it was announced on CNN on Tuesday night that Barack Obama was projected to be the president-elect.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

CHICAGO — First by the hundreds, then the thousands, then the tens of thousands, Chicagoans converged on Grant Park to exult in the election to the presidency of a man they adopted as one of their own, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois.

A huge roar arose about 10 p.m. Central time when CNN, displayed on giant television screens, declared Mr. Obama the projected winner over Senator John McCain, his Republican opponent.

Wave on wave of cheering followed. “O-bam-a, O-bam-a!”

In the streets around the park, where an overflow crowd of more than 125,000 spilled, people hugged, long, long embraces. Some cried, others broke into dance.

Rose Mary Day, 62, of Chicago, watched with tears in her eyes. “It’s history,” she said. “It’s elating. I feel the way I did as a young girl when J.F.K. was elected.”

In what may be remembered as this generation’s political Woodstock, even the unseasonably mild weather extended the run of good luck that helped propel Mr. Obama to the White House. Supporters and campaign workers and those who felt they had to be part of a historic night gathered, even though thousands of them were blocks away from the heavily secured enclosure where Mr. Obama was to speak to 70,000 ticketed guests.

First in line among those with tickets was Tom Krieglstein, 28, who lives on the city’s North Side. He and his brother, Dan, spent parts of the night in a bus shelter on Michigan Avenue to assure themselves a place near the stage.

“As far as I’m concerned,” he said, “this is a chance for us to write a new chapter for the city.”

There is a palpable pride here: The thought that Chicago would be home to a president-elect matters, people here said. Never before has the city had a president-elect, and plenty speculated about what that might mean for Chicago’s clout in Washington. Others said they just liked that the world knows Mr. Obama, a man of many cities, chose this one as his adopted home.

College students sat in clusters on the grass. Young people posed for snapshots beside a huge Obama portrait. Even before it was clear Mr. Obama had won, the mood was celebratory, even euphoric.

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Campaign workers cleaning bulletproof glass on the stage where Mr. Obama would speak.Credit
Doug Mills/The New York Times

“I can’t believe today is the day; I can’t believe we’re here after working for this for so long,” said Karen Davis, 46, who volunteered for Mr. Obama’s campaign. “It gives me a chill.”

LaToya Strom, 26, who arrived on Tuesday morning in hopes of getting a decent vantage point, said she had awoken especially early and grew tearful when she imagined what the day might bring.

Although she did not yet know the result of the day’s voting, Ms. Strom, who is African-American, said, “Something has changed by going through this whether you are black or not.”

Security precautions were extensive and largely kept confidential. The entire park that sits along Lake Michigan on the southern edge of downtown is ringed in chain-link fencing.

At 9 p.m., officials closed Lake Shore Drive, one of the city’s biggest thoroughfares. It is also the road that runs from downtown to Hyde Park, the South Side neighborhood where Mr. Obama lives.

Mayor Richard M. Daley was exuberant Tuesday afternoon as he spoke in an interview of the evening’s festivities.

“You can see the celebration in the air,” Mr. Daley said, looking around at the growing crowds.

The mayor bristled at comparisons to the scene in 1968 when police and protesters clashed in Grant Park during the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Daley’s father, Richard J. Daley, was mayor at the time and took a firm hand toward protesters, leading to hundreds of arrests and injuries.

“That was Vietnam,” Mr. Daley said. “Vietnam’s over with. That destroyed a country. Bobby Kennedy got killed. It had nothing to do with Grant Park.”

One of those who was there as a protester, Todd Gitlin, now a professor of sociology and journalism at Columbia University, said that Mr. Obama was in a sense the product of that bitter summer.

“He stands on the shoulders of the crowds of four decades ago,” Mr. Gitlin said. “His rebellion takes the form of practicality. He has the audacity of reason.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on page P8 of the New York edition with the headline: Celebration and Sense of History at Chicago Party. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe